The Dreamer's Child
by shanelover89
Summary: Follow a seventeen year old Halia Carter as she bumps along life's road. Please read and review! CURRENTLY ON HIATUS
1. Prologue

Author's Note: Yes, I'm back! I thought I'd be able to stop with just the first AU story, but lo-and-behold, it's just addicting! Here's the second installment of "It's What We've Gotta Do" entitled "The Dreamer's Child." I hope you guys like it, and as always, please read and review!

P.S. In case you haven't already guessed, this story is the sequel to one of my earlier ones. It won't make any sense unless you go read the other one first. Thanks!

_Prologue_

She ran the black eyeliner pencil across her lids and stepped back from the mirror, admiring her work. Yep, she was ready. Her cell phone vibrated on the desk across the room, indicating her newest text message. She walked over and flipped open the cover, reading the small screen.

_i'm here_

She smiled to herself as she walked over to the window and lifted it up slowly, wanting to make as little noise as possible. Just then, the sound of a person coming up the stairs alarmed her, and she put the window back down quickly and jumped into her bed, pulling the covers the way up so the person couldn't see that she wasn't wearing pajamas, and pretended to be asleep. He wasn't supposed to be home from his shift at the hospital for an hour!

The person opened her bedroom door and walked over to her bed, sitting on the edge and stroking her cheek lightly. She tried not to move.

"'Night, Hal. Sweet dreams."

As soon as she heard the door shut, she bolted out of bed and went back over to the window, opening it and climbing out, jumping to the ground just below. She'd be damned if her dad was going to stop her from going out. The way she figured it, he wouldn't even realize she was gone.


	2. Responsibilities

Okay, yeah, so that was a crazy long wait. I'm so sorry, all! I'm juggling two jobs (yeah, working EVERYDAY), meetings for my upcoming trip to France, Teen Court, preparations for my upcoming senior picture, and weekly band practices. Not to mention, I do have friends:) The wait for the next chapter will (hopefully) be less ridiculous. Please enjoy the chapter and, as always, REVIEW!

Chapter 1

She'd been right. Halia had snuck out with no problems at all and had a crazy fun night out with her friends. They had hit up the latest party, enjoying themselves well into the night. After stumbling out to her boyfriend Brock's pickup truck, she and he had driven out onto a secluded country back road, fooling around in a drunken stupor, finally returning home around 4:30 in the morning. It had been a typical Saturday night (Sunday morning) for Halia Carter.

But when Landon had gone in to wake her up the next morning for church, he couldn't figure out why she seemed so overly exhausted. His shifts at the hospital kept him away from home a lot, and although Cynthia and Hegbert used to watch their granddaughter when she was younger, as soon as she had turned fourteen, everyone had decided she was capable of taking care of herself overnight while Landon was at work. That was at the beginning of her freshman year; that was the year that changed her from sweet, innocent little Halia into the rebellious mess she was today.

Kirsten had been the start of Halia's problems. They had had Biology together that year, and with the class being so small and having an extremely relaxed teacher who let them pick their own seats, they had ended up sitting next to each other. The two had taken an immediate liking to one another, and within a month, they were best friends and completely inseparable. Landon had been sure that they Halia was going to ask if Kirsten could just come live with them permanently.

But being friends with Kirsten also tacked on a load of other "responsibilities" that Halia hadn't been quite ready for, like sneaking out at night to go to wild parties, donning (and using on a weekly basis) a fake I.D., and all-in-all, growing up a lot faster than she wanted to. It hadn't been all bad, though. The perks of this lifestyle that Halia had taken to included knowing most people in her high school, which wasn't that hard, anyway, considering the size, and quickly becoming one of the most popular girls in her class. _That_ had ended Halia up with Brock Kingsley, who actually was a pretty sweet guy when he wasn't drunk. Being the star running back and pitcher at Beaufort High School automatically put him at the top of the social totem pole, and anyone who knew him thought of him as a genuinely nice guy who was more than willing to help out anybody who asked for it. And the scholarships he received to the University of North Carolina weren't just for his athletic ability – his GPA was one of the top in his class. All said and done, Brock Kingsley was the catch of all catches in Beaufort.

He and Halia had started dating at the beginning of her junior year -- the beginning of his senior year. They had hit it off right from the start and their only immediate problem had been his current (but impeding ex) girlfriend, Amanda. Brock had tried to break it off with her a few times, but the fact that they had dated for nearly a year and a half made it a little harder to do than he initially expected. And it wasn't because he couldn't _say_ it, but because she couldn't take the hint. After she had caught Brock and Halia making out at a party, though, she had vanished swiftly and without another word. Ever since, she had held an infamous grudge against "the jaded home-wrecker," and had taken out her frustration on Halia on more than one occasion. She had been irritating, definitely, but had never done anything serious, so Halia and Brock tried not to worry too much about her.

Landon, surprisingly, had also taken a liking to Brock. This stunned everyone, including Cynthia, who reminded Landon of what he had told her when Halia was a mere two weeks old. For some reason, it had always stayed engraved in her mind, though she couldn't explain why.

_Landon Carter gingerly laid his newborn daughter down on the changing table, keeping one hand on her stomach so she wouldn't roll off while he reached down to grab the baby wipes and a fresh diaper. His mom watched him from the nursery doorway._

"_Need some help?" she asked, walking in._

_He flashed a smile her way. "Sure, if you want to."_

_Cynthia flipped a hand at him. "Don't be silly – you know I love doing this for you, though, you _are_ getting much better at it," she added, chuckling._

_As his mother changed the baby, Landon stared at his daughter...his beautiful, tiny little girl. She had been a month early, surprisingly with no complications, on her behalf, at least. With Jamie gone, he silently vowed to never let anything happen to her. Suddenly, Cynthia looked at him quizzically._

"_Whatcha thinkin' about, honey?" she asked as she picked Halia up and began to rub her back to stop her fussing._

_He let out a slight laugh. "I'm just thinking about being the father of a teenage girl. I don't know if I could handle any Landon Carters coming to the door to pick her up for a date," he cringed while she chuckled. "The more I think about it, the more I realize what a leap of faith it took on Hegbert's part to say yes to me when I told him I wanted to take Jamie out. If I were in his shoes I don't think I would've said yes to me."_

Although it had never been right-out said that Landon didn't want Halia to date popular-type guys, he had implied it, which (on some occasions) could be more powerful than actually voicing it. Cynthia reckoned that was why it stuck with her like it did.

Either way, Landon and Brock got along famously. When he and Halia weren't out partying, they often preferred to go to her house and watch a movie and share a bowl of popcorn. It really was quite the ingenious deception, because Landon truly did trust both of them, in turn never asking where they were headed or what time they'd be home (if he wasn't at the hospital). Big mistake.

The current Sunday morning, though, had begun to worry Landon. Halia had been asleep when he got home, so he assumed she had slept for at least eight hours, if not more, considering it was almost nine o'clock. "Hal?" he asked her, trying to gently wake her up by shaking her lightly. "It's time to get up, hon...time for church... Come on, we don't want to be late."

Halia (having only gone to sleep a few hours ago) had other ideas. "Dad, I don't want to go this morning. Just tell grandpa I don't feel good. Let me sleep just a few more hours, okay?"

"Hal, you missed last week, too. You promised me you'd get up today... What's making you so tired, baby?"

She couldn't tell him without getting grounded for at least a month. Sneaking out didn't look good, even to someone like Landon. "Fine. You win...I'm getting up right now."

Even though Halia was dead tired and not looking forward to the day ahead (as she would be running on three hours' sleep), she didn't regret the fact that she'd had the time of her life the night before. At least not yet.

Okay, yeah, so I know what you're all thinking. "What the heck did that chapter have to do with _anything????_" Truly, I thought you'd all want the background before I moved on with the next chapter. Otherwise, you would _really_ be clueless :P


	3. Author's Note

Hello, all!

When I first began this story, I wrote down an entire three WP pages of ideas. Since then, my computer crashed, leaving all of my writings down the drain. Most of my stuff had either already been published on here or on fictionpress or had been written down in my notebook that I take to school to write stuff down in if I get inspired, but for the stuff that didn't, well, it's lost forever. Until I get some ideas going for this story, I'm sad to say that it will (until further notice) be on hiatus. I'm so sorry.

shanelover


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